Store-and-Forward switching will wait until the entire frame has arrived prior to forwarding it. This method stores the entire frame in memory. Once the frame is in memory, the switch checks the destination address, source address, and the CRC. If no errors are present, the frame is forwarded to the appropriate port. This process ensures that the destination network is not affected by corrupted or truncated frames.

Cut-Through switching will begin forwarding the frame as soon as the destination address is identified. The difference between this and Store-and-Forward is that Store-and-Forward receives the whole frame before forwarding. Since frame errors cannot be detected by reading only the destination address, Cut-Through may impact network performance by forwarding corrupted or truncated frames. These bad frames can create broadcast storms wherein several devices on the network respond to the corrupted frames simultaneously.